“President Trump continues to show his complete disregard for basic human rights in his decision to reverse the Obama administration’s vital protections for transgender students. We humanists oppose discriminatory claims, largely perpetuated by extremist religious groups, that transgender students are “wrong” to use the bathroom of their choice. We vehemently reject the harmful fear-mongering from these groups – Transgender students deserve equal protection under the law, and any removal of their right is an attack on our shared values.”

The American Humanist Association will continue to actively challenge religious extremism and prejudice against the LGBTQ community as a longtime supporter of the rights of LGBTQ individuals. As an organization committed to defending freedom of speech, thought, and expression, we strongly condemn the repeal of these protections.

Last week I attended Creating Change, an annual conference spearheaded by the National LGBTQ Taskforce that provides training in grassroots organizing that centers the experiences and expertise of LGBTQ activists.

This five-day event was unlike anything I have ever encountered before. I’ve attended numerous conferences over the years (virtually all atheist, secular, and humanist-centered), but Creating Change was a unique departure that offered approximately 250 workshops and caucus sessions focusing on building leadership skills, professional development needs, political engagement, and mobilizing community-based activism.

Rajani Gudlavalleti, a queer humanist who is an anti-oppression consultant with Baltimore Racial Justice Action and a board member of the Foundation Beyond Belief, also attended Creating Change. When I asked her about why she felt this conference was significant, she said, “Creating Change prioritizes not only advancing our collective knowledge and impact, but works to highlight the need for an intersectional framework to understand the immeasurable diversity–and inequities—within our communities.”

On Saturday a significant number of Creating Change attendees joined the Women’s March on Philadelphia to protest Trump and his incendiary rhetoric that maligns women and femmes, immigrants, Muslims, people of color, and LGBTQ communities. Whether or not the march was actually “inclusive” and truly supportive of all those it claimed to represent is another discussion altogether, but what is clear is that there is a groundswell of resistance to Trump and the cultural prejudices he exacerbates.

To be sure, Trump alone isn’t “what’s wrong with America.” He’s merely an obnoxious, orange symptom that draws attention to social ills that have long festered within this nation. And because he’s so explicit, so crude, and so braggadocious, many can no longer ignore the oppressive beliefs that have allowed the most compromised and unqualified presidential candidate ever to barrel into the Oval Office.

What do we do now that the march is only a memory? After what was a momentous yet singular demonstration, what comes next? If we’re to overcome oppressive systems, it will take more than a single action. We must organize.

Protest is but one tool to inspire change. Marching isn’t an objective—it’s one of many ways to express an objective. Social change is brought about by supporting or toiling in the trenches of grassroots efforts in an ongoing fight that Angela Davis describes as a constant struggle.

In Building a Movement to End the New Jim Crow, An Organizing Guide, Daniel Hunter says it’s a myth that movements succeed if they mobilize large, mass actions:

Countless times the refrain is made: “We just need to have a giant March on Washington.” However, movements don’t win because of singular actions. Movements need ongoing resistance—otherwise, the powerholders can just wait until the march is over and continue ignoring movement requests. Movements require sustained pressure for change at many levels. It takes time to build, but without ongoing resistance, movements don’t achieve their goals.

The Creating Change environment was a continuous reminder that sustainable change takes solidarity (support for the empowerment and liberation of others) and inclusion (integrating the perspective/struggle of others into the common agenda). It takes commitment, not to a single moment like a march, but to a stream of moments that includes self-education and educating others, fundraising, publishing and circulating literature, community-focused collective actions, and donating to organizations devoted to creating the change you want to see in the world.

Social change takes all of us. Humanists believe a meaningful, ethical life is possible through human-derived reason, compassion, and social responsibility. Our commitment to critical inquiry and social concern includes confronting injustice that targets marginalized communities.

(Washington, DC, Nov. 3, 2016)—To help combat religious discrimination against the LGBTQ community, today the American Humanist Association launched a program to mobilize grassroots activists across the country who will ensure that local transitional housing spaces are inclusive and welcoming to transgender and gender non-conforming individuals.

The program, Humanists Optimizing and Upholding Shelter Equality (HOUSE), is an initiative of the LGBTQ Humanist Alliance, one of the American Humanist Association’s adjuncts dedicated to advancing equal rights for the lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender/queer (LGBTQ) community both within the humanist movement and in American society. Lead by an advisory board of openly LGBTQ humanists, the LGBTQ Humanist Alliance is providing educational resources to humanist groups so that they can reach out to and collaborate with their local transitional housing facilities to implement policies that actively affirm and support transgender individuals. Humanist groups participating in the program include: Camden County Humanists in Blackwood, New Jersey; Free Inquiry Group of Southwest Florida in Fort Myers, Florida; Harbor Humanists in Hoquiam, Washington; Humanists of Buffalo in Buffalo, New York; Humanist Community of Central Ohio in Columbus, Ohio; Humanists of West Florida in Pensacola, Florida; Lehigh Valley Humanists in Allentown, Pennsylvania; Montgomery Humanists in Montgomery, Alabama; and South Jersey Humanists in Galloway, New Jersey, among others.

“Humanists have long been ahead of the curve in affirming gender non-conforming individuals,” said Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the American Humanist Association. “Now we are turning that support into coordinated action that exemplifies the humanist values of equality, justice, and human dignity while taking a stand against religiously-motivated discrimination that harms the LGBTQ community.”

“With more than one in five transgender individuals experiencing homeless at some point in their lives, there is a clear need for shelters to appropriately serve transgender and gender non-conforming individuals,” said Sincere Kirabo, social justice coordinator of the American Humanist Association, in reference to a statement from the National Center for Transgender Equality. “By connecting humanist groups with shelters in their regions to educate them about best practice recommendations that encourage inclusivity, we will create grassroots change to positively impact the lives of transgender and gender non-conforming people in local communities.”

Many religious shelters have a history of discriminating against transgender and gender non-conforming individuals. In September, many shelters run by religious organizations, such as Union Mission Ministries in Norfolk, Virginia, criticized a new Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) regulation stating that transitional housing facilities receiving federal funding must provide equal access for transgender individuals. Last year, a trans woman in Toledo, Ohio, was turned away from a shelter run by Cherry Street Mission Ministries because of her gender identity. In 2013, a women’s shelter in Washington, DC, run by New Hope Ministries was sued for denying a transgender woman service at its facilities. Perhaps one of the most well-known charities, the Salvation Army, has a documented history of discriminating against LGBTQ individuals.

Some ways that shelters can meet the needs of homeless, transgender individuals include: welcoming them into the shelter, housing individuals in spaces that match their gender identity, identifying them with their chosen pronouns and name and preventing discrimination and harassment against transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals in the shelter.

Since the 1970s, the American Humanist Association has consistently advocated for equality for LGBTQ individuals. The American Humanist Association observes Transgender Day of Remembrance to confront the continued marginalization of the transgender community across the country. More information about the American Humanist Association’s advocacy on behalf of transgender Americans can be found on the LGBTQ Humanist Alliance’s website.

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Founded in 1941 and headquartered in Washington, DC, the American Humanist Association (AHA) works to protect the rights of humanists, atheists, and other nontheistic Americans. The AHA advances the ethical and life-affirming philosophy of humanism, which—without beliefs in any gods or other supernatural forces—encourages individuals to live informed and meaningful lives that aspire to the greater good of humanity.

When I was asked to write about LGBT Pride Month for TheHumanist.com, I immediately and enthusiastically said yes. I love Pride Month. It baffled me, then, as I sat down to write, that I couldn’t come up with words that made sense to me. I wanted to talk about the history of Pride, because it’s important for everyone to know that when we celebrate pride, we’re celebrating a riot. I wanted to talk about visibility for our community and this opportunity to step up and claim space in our community. But I couldn’t.

Frankly, much of what’s been on my mind when thinking about Pride of late are forty-nine of our siblings who didn’t get to celebrate this occasion with us. Pride is supposed to be about our community, working its way up from under oppression. It’s supposed to be about us being unashamed of who we are and unafraid to show our faces. But if I’m being completely honest, I am afraid.

That doesn’t mean I wasn’t going to show up. I did show up, and I screamed out loud. I held the hands of my LGBTQ family and boldly declared our existence and celebrated that existence. But it would be hubris to claim that I wasn’t scared. Just one year ago, many or most of us were absolutely euphoric as marriage equality became the law of the land in the United States. I have some friends who are pretty radical. These folks talked all along about how marriage wasn’t even close to the most important issue facing our community, and I even saw some of them say they were overwhelmed with emotion when that decision was handed down.

None of us were under any illusion at all that our work was over. But a major victory to celebrate it certainly felt like the work had fresh momentum. Then came the failure of the Houston Equal Rights Amendment. Then came the bathroom debate. We saw people who were seeking elected office literally threatening to kill people like me if found in the “wrong” bathroom—and making these threats with impunity. Then forty-nine of our siblings were violently taken away from us near the start of the month we were supposed to be celebrating again.

Last year’s Pride celebration made me feel invincible. I could look the protestors in the eye and laugh at them because they were being left behind. I know now that those feelings may have been illusory. Of course, being able to get legally married didn’t erase the myriad other problems the queer community faces. It most especially didn’t do anything to help the members of the trans community whose names we read at the Transgender Day of Remembrance ceremony last year. But it at least felt like we might be going somewhere. To be clear, I believe we still are, yet this year’s celebration felt far more sober for me.

The events of this month, the bathroom debate in the US, the continued violence against trans women of color, and the many other very real problems our community faces are all crucial reminders of why Pride is a vital exercise for our community. It may appear like an excuse to get drunk, act silly, wear bright colors, and watch an awesome parade, but from the inside, it looks very different. At my first Pride, I was still in the closet. At my second, I was out, proud, and ready to show my face to the world. My third was a euphoric celebration of queer love. My fourth, the LGBT Pride Month that’s coming to a close, has been a defiant show of love and solidarity with my queer and trans siblings in the face of so much hate and violence.

I sincerely hope I live to see the day when Pride is nothing more than a party and a commemoration of a fight long over. I hope that when I’m an old woman, I’ll tell the youth of our community how backwards we used to be, and I hope those stories will make no sense to them because the world they live in will look far more inviting and affirming than ours does today. Until then, I’ll show up to celebrate my existence. I’ll show up to stare straight into the eyes of the bigots there protesting and make sure they know I’m not going anywhere.

In an interview with NPR, Eddie Meltzer, a gay man who was interpreting for the Spanish-speaking members of the Orlando families, said, “we’re strong people because we live in a world that wasn’t made for us. And if tomorrow somebody took over this country and said, we’re going to kill all the gays, I will be the first one in that square saying, shoot me with my big flag all over the place because I would rather die for what I stand for. You can’t kill me. I’m an idea, I’m timeless.” That’s a sentiment humanists, and indeed all people of compassion, can celebrate.

(Orlando, FL, June 13, 2016)–The American Humanist Association mourns with the victims of the Orlando, Florida, shooting and stands in solidarity with the LGBTQ community in this time of sorrow. In response to reports that the Orlando shooter claimed allegiance to ISIS, the American Humanist Association condemns the extremist religious prejudice that can be the foundation for such violence against LGBTQ individuals.

“Despite the recent gains toward equality for LGBTQ Americans, the tragedy in Orlando reminds us of the bigotry that still impacts the LGBTQ community,” said Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the American Humanist Association. “While this incident is no excuse for hatred against religious groups, religious or ideological extremism that condones violence and seeks to deny equal rights for all cannot go unchallenged.”

Speckhardt continued, “We must remain ever-vigilant in our fight to protect the rights and safety of everyone, regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity.”

The American Humanist Association has long supported the rights of LGBTQ people, including same-sex marriage and the right to live free from discrimination. The American Humanist Association will continue to actively challenge religious extremism and prejudice against the LGBTQ community, particularly through its LGBTQ Humanist Alliance and other social justice adjuncts.

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Founded in 1941 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., the American Humanist Association (AHA) works to protect the rights of humanists, atheists, and other nontheistic Americans. The AHA advances the ethical and life-affirming philosophy of humanism, which—without beliefs in any gods or other supernatural forces—encourages individuals to live informed and meaningful lives that aspire to the greater good of humanity.

Of all the recent “religious freedom” legislation passed around the country, perhaps none is so restrictive as North Carolina’s “Act to Provide for Single-sex Multiple Occupancy Bathroom and Changing Facilities in Schools and Public Agencies and to Create Statewide Consistency in Regulation of Employment and Public Accommodations”. The short version of the bill’s name is the “Public Facilities Privacy & Security Act,” but it quickly became infamous as HB2.

Passed as a response to a non-discrimination ordinance enacted by the city of Charlotte, HB2 removed the protections under that law and others like it, attempted to redefine “sex” under the law, and barred transgender people from using restrooms on state property that conform to their gender. The legal and economic consequences to North Carolina were swift, but so far, neither the legislature nor the governor shows any willingness to overturn the bill.

On this week’s show, Jenn Wilson and Peggy Knudtson talk to Chris Brook, Legal Director of the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina, about the ACLU’s suit against the state. Peggy Knudtson and Stephanie Zvan also speak with Danielle White, a transgender activist engaging in civil disobedience against HB2.

(Washington, DC, May 18, 2016)—To strengthen the humanist presence in social justice movements, today the American Humanist Association launched the Black Humanist Alliance, an adjunct organization that will promote racial justice and solidarity between the Black and humanist communities. In conjunction with the launch, the American Humanist Association is also relaunching its women’s rights adjunct, the Feminist Humanist Alliance, and its LGBTQ adjunct, the LGBTQ Humanist Alliance.

“The humanist community will always be committed to defending the separation of church and state and the civil liberties of nontheists,” said Roy Speckhardt, executive director of the American Humanist Association. “But to truly live out our humanist values of equality and justice, we must also stand in solidarity with people of color, women and LGBTQ individuals, whose rights, dignity and full humanity are sadly still disregarded in our society.”

The goal of the American Humanist Association’s adjuncts is to organize humanist volunteers who will actively engage with issues of racial justice, gender equality and LGBTQ rights in their communities and across the country. Already, these adjunct organizations have mobilized dozens of volunteer leaders, who all demonstrate that nontheists are activists within social justice movements. The American Humanist Association’s social justice leaders will also work within the secular movement to raise awareness about the need for outreach, inclusivity and awareness about social justice issues.

“The secular movement is often misrepresented as an ‘old boys club’ of straight, white, well-to-do men,” said Sincere Kirabo, American Humanist Association social justice coordinator. “Through the Black Humanist Alliance and our other adjuncts, people will come to realize that there are many humanists and atheists who are also women, trans, queer, gender-nonconforming, and people of color. The secular movement is diverse, and we must ensure that everyone within our movement is given a voice.”

Currently, the American Humanist Association’s social justice adjuncts are partnering with other organizations to combat inequality. Volunteers in the Black Humanist Alliance, Feminist Humanist Alliance and LGBTQ Humanist Alliance are partnering with the Lionheart Foundation, Black Lives Matter, the National Organization for Women and Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ), among other programs. Efforts are ongoing to continue reaching out to new volunteers as well as to other organizations dedicated to advancing full equality and recognition for all people.

Founded in 1941 and headquartered in Washington, D.C., the American Humanist Association works to protect the rights of humanists, atheists and other nontheistic Americans. The AHA advances the ethical and life-affirming philosophy of humanism, which—without beliefs in any gods or other supernatural forces—encourages individuals to live informed and meaningful lives that aspire to the greater good of humanity.

]]>http://lgbthumanists.org/blog/aha-launches-initiatives-for-racial-justice-womens-equality-and-lgbtq-rights/feed/0Ban Cisgender White Men From Public Bathrooms: A Modest Proposalhttp://lgbthumanists.org/blog/ban-cisgender-white-men-from-public-bathrooms-a-modest-proposal/
http://lgbthumanists.org/blog/ban-cisgender-white-men-from-public-bathrooms-a-modest-proposal/#commentsTue, 10 May 2016 15:26:16 +0000LGBTQ Humanist Alliance Staffhttp://lgbthumanists.org/?p=868This post, written by Trav Mamone, originally appeared on TheHumanist.com

With all the troubles in the world—radical Islamic terrorism, climate change, Donald Trump—it’s good that the religious right is focused on the biggest existential threat to America: transgender women wanting to pee in women’s bathrooms. If you’ve been following the recent crop of “bathroom bills” within the past few months, you would think that there’s a huge epidemic of “men pretending to be women” entering into women’s bathrooms to rape and assault women and children, even though, according to the Transgender Law Center, the Human Rights Campaign, and the ACLU, there is no statistical evidence that transgender people are committing sexual assault in public bathrooms. Of course this hasn’t prevented the American Family Association (AFA) from launching a new campaign to boycott Target over the store allowing women to pee in women’s bathrooms.

On April 16, 2016, Target announced that trans women can use their women’s bathrooms, and trans men can use men’s bathrooms (it doesn’t mention anything about nonbinary people like myself, so I assume it’s okay if I still use the gender-neutral family/handicapped bathroom). According to a statement posted online:

We believe that everyone—every team member, every guest, and every community—deserves to be protected from discrimination, and treated equally. Consistent with this belief, Target supports the federal Equality Act, which provides protections to LGBT individuals, and opposes action that enables discrimination. . . . Everyone deserves to feel like they belong. And you’ll always be accepted, respected and welcomed at Target.

The AFA responded with a call for all decent, God-fearing Christians to boycott Target. According to their website, the store’s “dangerous new policy poses a danger to wives and daughters” by allowing men who claim to be women to go into women’s bathrooms and do all sort of nasty stuff. After all, according to the AFA, “with Target publicly boasting that men can enter women’s bathrooms, where do you think predators are going to go?”

Now I understand the concern for safety. According to the National Sexual Violence Research Center, one in five women experience some form of sexual assault. It’s obvious we need to do something about it, but is banning trans people from public bathrooms the answer? Not only is there no statistical evidence of trans people assaulting women in bathrooms, but according to the Sexual Assault Awareness and Prevention Center of the University of Michigan, most rapes and sexual assaults are conducted by white males (presumably cisgender men because the stats reveal nothing about trans men).

So here’s a modest proposal that I think will solve this dilemma: ban all cisgender white men from public bathrooms.

Here’s how it would work: any business or organization that provides public bathroom facilities must have a security guard to screen everyone who wants to use the bathroom. If you identify as male, and your ID identifies you as a male, you must go outside the building to a designated area. This area can either be behind a dumpster or in the bushes, which is actually more convenient than it sounds because there are plenty of leaves and garbage around these areas for white cisgender men to wipe themselves. These designated areas will also be surrounded by security cameras to make sure the white cisgender men don’t try to pull off any funny business.

Yes, this new legislature may upset a few people, but we have to think about the children. I mean, what kind of world are we living in when our children are constantly under the threat of being abused by neighbors, family members, and friends? I’m telling you, all those white cis men running around—it just ain’t right! Besides, sometimes we need to sacrifice some of our freedoms in order to keep them from being stolen (although I don’t know how exactly that works).

Together we can make public bathrooms safe places to shit again. God bless America!

]]>http://lgbthumanists.org/blog/ban-cisgender-white-men-from-public-bathrooms-a-modest-proposal/feed/0Let’s Discriminate against Mississippianshttp://lgbthumanists.org/blog/lets-discriminate-against-mississippians/
http://lgbthumanists.org/blog/lets-discriminate-against-mississippians/#commentsThu, 14 Apr 2016 15:22:51 +0000LGBTQ Humanist Alliance Staffhttp://lgbthumanists.org/?p=865This post, written by Luis Granados as part of his Rules Are for Schmucks column, originally appeared on TheHumanist.com

Here’s an idea for politicians seeking to turn themselves into statesmen: let’s legalize discrimination against Mississippians.

Turnabout is fair play, right? Sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander, is it not? Standing against the tide of states like Georgia and West Virginia that recently rejected hate legislation, Mississippi just enacted an extraordinarily sweeping law giving carte blanche to anyone who wants to discriminate against LGBTQ individuals. So we know Mississippi can dish it out—can Mississippi take it?

Don’t sit back smugly and think, “Well, I’m straight, so this doesn’t affect me.” That’s decidedly unhumanistic, plus the bill condones discrimination against anyone, straight or gay, who has ever committed sex before or outside of heterosexual marriage. That covers quite a few of us, don’t you think?

Why the difference between Georgia and Mississippi? One difference is that the governor of Georgia, even though he’s a devout evangelical Christian and a strong conservative, appears to be a decent human being. The governor of Mississippi, on the evidence of this legislation, isn’t.

Another difference is that Georgia had something to lose. Major corporations do business in Georgia. The film industry is huge there. The Super Bowl is played there from time to time. So they had to sit up and pay attention when the generally rational people who run our major corporations said they had no tolerance for intolerance. But Mississippi? It has no major league professional sports teams. Not a single Fortune 500 company headquarters. It has the lowest student test scores, the fattest bellies, the worst infant mortality rates, and the highest proportion of the population on food stamps of any of the fifty states. By some odd coincidence, it’s also the most religious state. Reason and tolerance have nowhere near the influence in Mississippi that they had in Georgia.

The governors of Vermont and New York just banned non-essential state travel to Mississippi. Now there’s a useless gesture. No one goes to Mississippi anyway, so what’s the point? It would make more sense to focus on travel in the opposite direction. Maybe we could follow Donald Trump’s lead: we could build a wall around Mississippi, cut off all emigration from Mississippi to the civilized other forty-nine, and deport the glut of Mississippians already infecting the other forty-nine back to Mississippi. Could we get Mississippi to pay for such a wall? Nah, they don’t have any money. Maybe Trump could get Mexico to pay for it. Or, we could listen to Ted Cruz, and set up extra police patrols in neighborhoods where Mississippians are known to congregate. Trailer parks are natural candidates.

Of course that would be extreme, so I suggest a middle ground. Since imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, we should flatter Mississippi by doing something like they just did: pass laws allowing anyone whose conscience so demands it to discriminate against people who have the poor judgment to be Mississippian. Housing, employment, use of rest rooms, you name it: if in good conscience you don’t want to serve a Mississippian, no one should make you do it.

But, bleeding hearts might say, being Mississippian isn’t a conscious choice—people are born that way. Maybe that’s true. But the same pseudo-psychology industry that claims to be able to deprogram people from being gay could perhaps be modified to deprogram people from being Mississippian, giving them a wholesome alternative to their sordid, shameful Mississippi lifestyle.

That’s a detail we can worry about later. What’s important now is to protect the tender consciences of those who just can’t stand the thought of serving a hot dog or renting a room to anyone from a state as bigoted as Mississippi—much less allowing such a disgusting person to remain on an employer’s payroll.

Mississippi, of course, has a long history of other types of discrimination on religious grounds. It was 1960s Mississippi Governor Ross Barnett who once called God “the original segregationist.” I’m not one to defend racial segregation, but at least segregationists paid lip service to the premise of “separate but equal” accommodations for blacks and whites. The bill just signed by Governor Phil Bryant doesn’t even do that. It allows outright denial of service to LGBTQ individuals and other sex-committers without any alternative accommodation at all.

Am I being unfair to all Mississippians because of the actions of a few? Are the ideas here ridiculous? Of course. Some of my best friends are from Mississippi. (Actually, they’re not, but it’s the thought that counts.) But it’s the governor and legislature of Mississippi that started down the path away from “live and let live,” not me. They need to think harder about where that path is going to lead them.

This past February we covered a proposed bill in South Dakota that would’ve prevented transgender students from using bathrooms and locker rooms that correspond with their gender identities. Though fortunately that bill was vetoed shortly after we posted the article, similarly atrocious bills have since popped up throughout the United States.

Last week North Carolina Governor Pat McCrory signed a bill drafted during a hasty “special session” that requires all residents to use bathrooms designated for their biological sex as “stated on a person’s birth certificate.” In response, several corporations—including Apple, the NFL, IBM, American Airlines, and the NBA— have threatened to boycott the state of North Carolina. Just this past weekend Washington, DC, Mayor Muriel Bowser banned city employees from traveling to North Carolina on official business. Even the state’s attorney general, Roy Cooper, recently stated he would not defend the new law in court, calling it “unconstitutional” and “a national embarrassment.” Cooper, a Democrat who’s currently running against McCrory, said that not only does the law discriminate against LGBT people, but it will also “set North Carolina’s economy back if we don’t repeal it.”

Gov. McCrory, however, maintains that the law doesn’t discriminate against anyone and that the public outcry is nothing more than “political theater.” In a recent appearance on NBC News he asked, “Would you want a man to walk into your daughter’s shower and legally be able to do that because mentally they think they are of the other gender?”

Responding to the new law, a transgender man from Charlotte, North Carolina, named Charlie Comero has started passing out cards to cis women in public women’s rooms that read, “I’m following the law that was passed on March 23. I am a transgender man who would rather be using the men’s room right now. This is likely uncomfortable for both of us. Please contact your legislature and tell them you oppose HB-2.”

“Some transgender people are more at risk for violence/harassment because of this law than others due to how they are seen in public,” Comero recently wrote on his Facebook page. “My choice to do this has everything to do with acknowledging my white and (sometimes) male cis-passing privilege. I am not always seen as male. When I started feeling male privilege during my transition, I vowed to myself that I would use that privilege to bring awareness to things that might not be popular to say; anything else would be a betrayal of myself and my equity/feminist values.”

Businesses are starting to adopt new bathroom policies to accommodate transgender people as well. A Kroger grocery store in Atlanta, Georgia, for example, recently made headlines after installing a unisex public bathroom policy. According to a sign outside the unisex bathroom door, the purpose of having a unisex bathroom is to make things more comfortable for fathers with little girls, mothers with little boys, people with disabilities, and “those in the LGBTQ community.” A customer posted a picture of the sign onto her Facebook page and wrote, “Nice job, Kroger.”

Whether North Carolina will ultimately follow Virginia and Georgia is hard to say. However, as Comero reminds his Facebook followers, “If we fight with love and compassion, people will listen.”